Does anyone here use Houghton Mifflin reading? I am teaching first grade next year, and have not use HR reading before. I'd love any tips, especially for using the little readers that supplement the larger, textbook-like basal and how to integrate "real books" into guided reading!

Have you looked in the series? The leveled readers are good books. I use those for guided reading groups as well as the I Love Reading books and the decodable text. You can integrate "real" books into the reading by finding books that will help teach the skills and strategies you are teaching during each theme. The Back To School Theme and Theme 1 are pretty boring but it will pick up eventually.

Thanks for the reply! I have looked through them, and they do seem to be pretty good. I spent a couple hours today sorting the leveled readers out of the trade books... the classroom library the previous teacher left is a total disaster zone! Do you have any tips for teaching with HM reading?

I too am using HM for the first year this year. (in first grade) My district didn't order the I Love Reading books or the leveled theme books. We got the phonics library, the leveled readers, student journals, big books, and teacher editions as well as the anthologies. What are the I Love Reading books and how beneficial do you feel they are? They didn't get us the leveled theme readers because they felt we could use books we already used for guided reading to teach those skills and strategies.

The phonics library is the decodable text (the green books with about 10 or so stories in them...it should have come with about 6 books for each theme). The leveled readers are the ones that have either a blue, green, or pink shape on the back, depending on their ability level. The I Love Reading books are blackline masters that are in a yellow (I think) book about the size of the practice books.

When we teach HM, we teach the targets and what is tested. There is just too much stuff to teach and little time to do it. Once you get into a routine with teaching it, it will come more easily. I would also say to make sure you have your materials readily available.

I am thankful we have blackline masters available from our Print Shop for both the I Love Reading & Phonics Library books as we use the copied ones in so many ways. The kids keep a few weeks worth of them in the Book Baggies(gallon size baggies). We use them for Buddy reading time, with volunteers, during small group with me. Some activities we do with them other than read are: highlighting (new vocab, hi-freq. words, clusters, punctuation, 2 & 3 syllable words, contractions, compound words, etc.), read and reread them, and do timed reading with these(sometimes for a wcpm & sometimes just noting that we read further with continued practice.)

I think I'm a little confused... What are the I Love Reading books? Are they reproducable books for the kids to take home? Or are they extension activities like workbooks that complement the basal? I don't think my school has those.

If I recall correctly, there are 2 books of blackline masters for the I Love Reading books, they are a reproducible books.

In your TM you can look at a Lesson Overview & it will show you Phonics Library listed under the Literature Section-Decodable Text. I Love Reading Decodable Texts are listed under Instructional Support(at least in the 2nd Gr. Lesson Overview. I moved from 1st to 2nd last year).

Both are useful but one(and I can't remember which) has more content to it. I'd ask for them as I do send them home to give families an opportunity to reinforce classroom learning.

I didn't use the little readers much but we did the anthologies each week as a class and then buddy read them again one more time later in the week. Sometimes we would do an extension or writing activity with them and sometimes a phonics game or activity from the teacher guide. I also used the practice book every day. We would do several pages because they are quick and easy and I felt that I wouldn't forget to address my scope and sequence if I kind of went along with practice book topics (contractions, grammar, syllables, compound words etc.) Other than that, I didn't do a lot of the extras in the teacher guide. There isn't much time if you use guided reading/centers for an hour of your day and then do word wall, making words, spelling and writing workshop to round out your program. Most teachers in my district weren't using it every single day and completing lots of the suggested activities but were being really selective and choosing 1 or 2 a week. Time was the real problem. The kids did love the take-home black and white books and we used those weekly to highlight sight words and reread for fluency practice.

I'm looking through the TE for Theme 1 now, and in the Suggestions for Daily Fluency Building boxes, it references the On Level/Challenge Theme Paperbacks and the On My Way Practice Readers. What do those look like on the back? The classroom I inherited has books EVERYWHERE... I was lucky to even find teachers guides.